An eThekwini Municipality pipe has been gushing out potable water on the perimeter of the Southgate Business Park for seven months. The 800mm pipeline feeds the South via the central region and runs from the SCA pumpstation to Amanzimtoti Waterworks.
“A patrolling guard noticed the leak on 28 December 2019 and that’s when I first reported it,” said park manager, Frans van der Merwe. “I was passed from department to department, but nothing was done about it. In desperation, I contacted ward 97 councillor, Andre Beetge. Although it is not in his ward, he tried his best, to no avail.”
The amount of water gushing out could easily fill a five-litre bucket in about a minute, so at a rough estimate close to, if not more, than 216 000 litres of drinking water is being wasted a month. That amounts to a staggering 1.5-million litres since it was first reported.
“I was eventually put into contact with an eThekwini engineer, who said he was only made aware of the fault in May. He got permission to come on site, came out to do an inspection and said they needed to replace two scour valves. A previous official said that the municipality had stock and it should be a quick fix.”
READ ALSO: Durban gets pro-active about water scarcity
The engineer in question arrived on 22 June for a site inspection to plan the repairs. After not hearing anything further, Frans asked for an update on 1 July and the engineer said they were struggling to secure the valves. On Friday, 17 July he replied to another message from Frans to say they were still waiting for the buyer’s office.
The water has been running non-stop 24/7 and is flowing down a neighbouring factory’s retaining wall at a strong velocity and pooling in its yard. “We are worried it is destablising the bank. If that bank comes down, it will cause huge damage to that property and factory. I have tried to warn the municipality about the danger, but no-one is listening.
“This is not just a huge waste of potable water, it will have to be paid for by the ratepayers of Durban. It’s rumoured that the municipality wants to increase rates and taxes, which can be avoided if wastages such as there were taken care of timeously. If the leak was repaired in January or February, it would have saved a fortune. I don’t understand why it has taken so long to get sorted out. The frustrating thing is there are companies in the park who manufacture valves and could perhaps have assisted, but we have to wait for the municipality to sort out the problem – and who knows how much longer that will take.”
After Beetge was alerted that the problem had still not been addressed, he conducted a site inspection on Monday, 20 July to confirm the extent of the situation. “We have to express our deepest disappointment and concern with the situation, as not only are thousands of litres of water going to waste (against the backdrop of the city being unable to account for more than 45% of water loss), but there is eminent danger to private property and then not only contained to a retainer wall, but to areas below should the wall be saturated to the point of collapse.
READ ALSO: City in financial strain
“Subsequent to the above, we debated the matter with the area bulk water infrastructure engineer, who was both aware and shared our concerns to the point of expressing frustration with municipal procurement processes that appear to be hampering the replacement of two valves.
“We are currently in correspondence with senior management in both the water and supply chain management departments in an effort to have the matter addressed. Efforts to resolve an ever growing list of concerns do, however, appear hampered by various departments not currently being available due to Covid-19 infections and closures.”
The SUN contacted eThekwini Municipality for comment, but no response was forthcoming.
DID YOU KNOW?
Click on the words highlighted in red to read more on this and related topics.
To receive news links via WhatsApp or Telegram, send an invite to 061 694 6047
The South Coast Sun is also on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest – why not join us there?
Do you have more information pertaining to this story?
Feel free to let us know by commenting on our Facebook page or you can contact our newsroom on 031 903 2341 and speak to a journalist.
To receive our free newsletter click here
(Comments posted on this issue may be used for publication in the Sun)
